


One Thesis to Rule Them All

by ladylovebacken



Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Brief mention of Harry Potter?, Gen, Middle-Earthan Grad School, Not Modern Day, One Ring to Rule Them All, Poor Celebrimbor, Pre-Lord of The Rings, Pseudo-Grad School AU, Rings of Power, Sauron Being an Asshole
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-06-10
Packaged: 2019-05-20 16:34:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14898110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladylovebacken/pseuds/ladylovebacken
Summary: Annatar (the "Lord of Gifts") ingratiates himself with the elves in Eregion. But what happens when he starts attending grad school there and gets a class of his own to teach? A fic in which Celebrimbor and Annatar are sassy bffs until the worst happens.





	One Thesis to Rule Them All

The young man shifted in his seat as the professor droned on and on. It was lab, the best part of every day. But why did she have to lecture for so long?

He stifled a yawn and glanced to his left. There sat his closest friend – tall, with pointed ears and flowing blond hair. He didn’t look a day over seventeen, though he knew the elf was much older than that.

“Cel,” he muttered. “Five coins if she stops in the next two minutes.”

“Consider it done,” he said. “Professor?”

She halted mid-sentence and looked over at her student questioningly.

“May I start back up on my project? I need to leave before the end of lab and I couldn’t tell you before because I was late to class and I forgot to tell you Tuesday….”

His voice trailed off as the professor met his sheepish eyes with a stern gaze.

“Very well,” she conceded. “It _is_ time to begin projects now anyways. Class, please move over to the forges you’ve been assigned and resume work on your projects. I will be moving around the room to check in on your progress and answer questions.”

Cel turned back to his friend with a smirk spreading across his face.

“You’re welcome, Anni. Advanced magical object theory cut short. Playing with fire cut long. Let’s go.”

They rose and maneuvered through the tangle of the desks, chairs, and vines – that was always the danger of holding class outdoors. Then again, with the elves, if it couldn’t be done outside, it wasn’t worth doing.

They met the third of their group already at their forge.

“Thank you for finally deciding to join,” she said dryly. “We should get to work.”

“We were literally released thirty seconds ago,” Anni deadpanned.

“And what are you waiting for?” she retorted, passing a pair of heavy gloves to each of her groupmates. “Magical objects don’t grow on trees.”

Anni snorted and drew on the gloves. They had been working their way through creating many magical objects, starting with larger pieces, such as shields. But those didn’t always turn out so well. Anything that came out too wonky went into the bin to be shipped off to the Ministry of Magic to be Very Official and Important Portkeys. But that didn’t happen too often.

Now they were on to detail work – magic jewelry. And Anni and his friend were working on rings for their project.

They needed to synthesize all the techniques and considerations they had learned over the course of the semester. Rings would be tricky. They’d be highly specialized and require intricate magic.

Play well with the user’s abilities? Check. Contain the power necessary to fulfill its mission? Check. Be able to change sizes so it wasn’t a piece of “one size fits most” junk? That was what they were still working on. And if they couldn’t figure that out, then they’d just have to make their best guess for what size to make each ring. Thankfully, jewelry sizing wasn’t a crucial part of the project, so if they had to guess, they wouldn’t fail.

Anni pushed his damp curls back off his brow. That helped a little, but sweat still was pouring down the small of his back and attempting to sting his eyes. Not ideal when working with molten metal. They had so little time to manipulate their materials and refine their technique.

And it’s not like they just had to make one object. One might be a fluke. But multiple proves they mastered the skill.

That semester passed – and so did Anni and his group. They moved on to the next year of grad school. Anni and Cel started working as TAs, and they were assigned to teach the undergraduate Magical Object Theory class.

They structured the course to mirror the graduate course – though the material was scaled appropriately. The students got overviews of all the different areas, with a slightly deeper dive into some. Cel and Anni focused heavily on the jewelry-making portion of the course. After all, they both were writing their theses on the topic.

Before they had these added responsibilities, Cel and Anni were spending most evenings together, talking about what they had recently read and generally enjoying spending time together. Now, they spent the majority of their time at their workstations, furiously drafting sections or refining the ring-making process for their theses, leaving only long enough to eat and sleep for short spells. Cel had definitely took on more than he could chew. He was working on three separate rings, and he felt like he was drowning.

And Anni, though making only the one ring, was in a similar situation. He worked at his forge in deadly silence, punctuated with the occasional curse. Anni moved methodically about his tasks, approaching every aspect with precision. He would take nothing but perfection for this, the most important project of his life.

Months passed. Cel and Anni were working more frantically than ever and sleeping even less. One day, the light at the end of the tunnel shone clearer than ever. They were at their workstations when their advisor strode up, carrying a sheaf of papers.

“Celebrimbor, Annatar.” He nodded to each in turn. “I have your graduation paperwork here. I need you to finish filling it out and return it within a fortnight.”

Anni reached out mechanically and took his small stack of forms. After all this time, he was so close. And that meant less time to finish his plans. He hurriedly flipped through the sheaf, noting the sheer volume of information required and how many times he had to sign and initial it. Anni set it to the side, careful to keep it far from the flames, and turned back to his work.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Cel still looking at the papers with his brow furrowed. Cel raised his head and caught Anni’s eye, giving him a small smile.

“It’s here. It’s finally real,” Cel said, disbelief tinging his voice. “They’re going to let us graduate. We’re almost done.”

“We always knew this day would come,” Anni replied. “But there’s still so much to finish before we actually graduate and so little time left.

He turned back to his work, chewing his lower lip and reviewing the plans he had drawn up. Anni stayed buried in his work until Cel poked his shoulder, reminding him it was time for them to go to their class.

Anni smiled and followed his friend to their classroom, taking his position at the front to lecture. The students had been attentive all semester, hung on his every word, and progressed quickly. He was proud of everything they had accomplished, especially after Cel had relinquished all his teaching duties when they discovered the students responded best to Anni. From then on, Cel sat in the back, ready to help answer students’ questions and guide them through the lab portions of the class. But even with those responsibilities taking some of his attention, Cel found himself learning things from his friend.

Anni was a charismatic teacher, carefully guiding students to the knowledge he wanted to impart while still letting them explore what interested them. By the end of the term, they had together crafted countless lesser rings and sixteen high-quality, powerful rings (seven for their midterm and nine for their final). Anni was satisfied with their work and released his students for their break. But he still had work to do.

The next week was filled with late nights and extensive planning. Anni knew that Cel would barely finish in time and offered to help but was refused. He gave Cel space after that, leaving Eregion for a few days to work on his thesis in a new space.

Cel and Anni each presented his thesis to the committee, Cel also showing the three rings he crafted. Anni had not finished his ring yet – he had to acquire one more element far from Eregion, but the committee passed him on the strength of his thesis. They were finally both done.

That night, they celebrated with their friends and drank into the early hours of the morning. When Cel awoke, Anni was gone and had left a note on the desk in their shared room.

_I’ve gone to get the last element for my project. I’ll be back soon. Try not to have too much fun without me._

Cel felt a twinge of sadness that Anni hadn’t asked him to go along on this quest. They had been friends for years now, and Anni knew that Cel had no responsibilities for several weeks since they both just graduated. He pushed those feelings down and decided to just enjoy himself. School was finally done, the committee had been amazed at the rings he had created, and things looked to be going well.

A few weeks passed when Cel felt a change. He instantly pulled the ring off his finger and sat down in shock. There was another ring, a more powerful ring, one trying to control his ring...and all the others? He ran to find his students who made the Sixteen who had also felt too. They had already removed their rings, and Cel directed them to them. There was only one person he knew who had the skill to make a ring of that magnitude. _How could he have missed this?_

He resolutely set to making sure the rings would stay safe, sending two of the Three he had made to Gil-galad and the last to Galadriel. Gil-galad had doubted Annatar’s sincerity and was now justified.

Cel hoped that hiding the rings would be enough, that Anni would just leave them alone. But he knew that wouldn’t be the case. Anni had always desired to be the best and in control, not letting anything stand in his way. This would be no different.

Sure enough, Annatar soon arrived, openly revealing himself as Sauron. He was furious at the reception. He had spent so much time there imparting his knowledge, and this was how they were going to thank him? He demanded they turn over the Rings. When they refused, Sauron unleashed his fury on Eregion, pressing until he captured Cel and brought him back to his headquarters.

Sauron stayed separated from his former friend, brooding and planning his strategy. He would start by trying to appeal to their friendship, then move on to darker methods if necessary. And they were. Cel refused to cooperate, glaring at the ring on Sauron’s finger, so Sauron and his lackeys tortured the whereabouts of the Sixteen out of him. At the end, Celebrimbor was dead, but Sauron found himself apathetic. He ordered his followers to make an example of Cel for their attacks.

Sauron and his army swaggered into Eregion to collect the Sixteen, Cel’s body shot with arrows and hanging from a pole as a banner. It was time to enact the next phase of his plan.


End file.
